News from around the nation.

Trump says the U.S. and Iran are not talking about ending the war; federal housing funding disruptions are hitting rural areas the hardest; a look at the issues dominating the historic Tennessee gubernatorial race; and severe drought is forcing many ranchers to face tough decisions.

Transcript

The Public News Service Tuesday afternoon update.

I'm Joe Ulori.

President Trump says the U.S. and Iran aren't talking about ending the war and there are no talks on the calendar.

His son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner say Iran has shown little interest in reaching a deal with Washington.

Despite a court win last week, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council warns that a disruption in federal funding could have an outsized impact on rural and small communities across Wisconsin.

The council provides services statewide and says rural areas face unique fair housing challenges, but they often have fewer resources to address them.

CEO Erica Sanders says older housing stock in these areas create additional challenges for people with disabilities who need accessibility modifications.

People have the perception that rural communities are all white and therefore race discrimination doesn't happen in those communities.

But that's absolutely untrue, especially in areas where Hmong refugees have settled, especially where migrant workers have settled.

Last Friday, a federal judge blocked those plans.

I'm Judith Rui's branch reporting.

For new home heating installs, electrification is trending.

In the first quarter of this year, heat pump sales beat fossil fuel furnaces by a record 32 percent, according to new data.

Clean energy voices say heat pumps are more efficient and cost effective because rather than creating hot or cold air like fossil fuel based systems, they move existing heat either out of a home to cool it or into a home to warm it.

Kristen George Bagdanov is with the building decarbonization coalition, which authored the report.

She says the U.S. is at an electrification tipping point.

Energy bills going up, the oil shocks that we're experiencing have really been leading people to want technologies that are efficient and that don't seem to rely on this up and down fossil fuel global economy.

Tennessee is on track for a historic race this November as Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Jerry Green vied to become the state's first female governor.

More now from Danielle Smith on the issues that could decide the race.

The economy is one of the biggest issues to watch for, according to Democratic State Senator Charlene Oliver, who's seeking reelection in Nashville's 19th district.

She says families are strapped for cash as more of their money goes towards rent, groceries and child care.

She believes reducing grocery costs could be the most critical issue of the election cycle.

I think at the top of that agenda must be a tackling the affordability crisis in our state.

That starts with eliminating the 4% grocery tax that we have in this state.

We should not be taxing a basic necessity that everyone needs.

There are more than 4 million registered voters in Tennessee, but Oliver points out that Tennessee ranks near the bottom nationally in voter turnout.

Election day is November 3rd. and tea ballots can be requested online now through the Tennessee Secretary of State's website.

This is Public News Service.

Wyoming ranchers have been selling off pairs of cows and calves after this winter's record low snowpack led to widespread drought, according to a new WIOFile report, in part because they didn't know how they would feed them.

Eric Galatas has more.

When it became clear that water would be scarce, farmers in Carbon County were forced to grow hay instead of feed.

Climate and energy reporter Dustin Blyseffer says warmer than normal temperatures in spring sent snowpack downstream early and it's been mostly dry ever since.

The kind of low snowpack situation in the winter really set the stage for low-flowing streams, reservoirs not filling.

Roughly 80 percent of the Cowboy State is experiencing severe drought and nearly half of the state is experiencing extreme drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The Wyoming State engineer's office is enforcing water restrictions dating back to the 1800s.

Many small reservoirs have reached dead pool levels where water no longer flows downstream.

New Medicaid eligibility rules passed by North Carolina last spring go further than what President Donald Trump's spending package required, and health advocates are distraught by the compounding effects of the policies.

Trump's H.R. 1 budget bill targets Medicaid recipients who receive benefits under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Starting next year, adults between the ages of 19 and 64 will have to work or volunteer for 80 hours a month to qualify for benefits.

While federal rules require applicants to verify one previous month of work history, North Carolina's Medicaid funding bill increases the verification period to three months.

Rebecca Cerise with the North Carolina Justice Center says lawmakers are failing to recognize that life isn't always clean cut.

People's lives are complicated.

People in rural areas sometimes have lower employment opportunities.

People can get sick or have an accident that can complicate matters or make it that there's a month that you can't work.

Black-led organizations will gather in Massachusetts this week to find ways to counter tobacco marketing in their communities, which has contributed to higher use and more tobacco-related disease.

For decades, Big Tobacco has used retail promotions, music events and advertising in publications popular with black audiences to promote menthol cigarettes, which are considered easier to smoke but harder to quit.

Kendrick Dardis with the nonprofit public health organization Truth Initiative says more than 45,000 black Americans die from smoking related disease each year.

We know that if this did not happen by accident, that these results are decades of targeted marketing and other practices that have disproportionately affected black communities.

Darda says the health impacts of smoking are compounded by the discrimination black Americans often face, which can increase both stress and tobacco usage.

He says his organization is partnering with BET, Essence and the NAACP to spread greater awareness about these risks and the tools available to quit tobacco for good.

I'm Catherine Carley.

This is Joe Ulori for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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